Green Tea was used as Currency

Many people have realized the importance of tea, even during the ancient times. People from all walks of life formed tea drinking as part of their lifestyle due to inspiration they gained from tea drinking. They also appreciated the benefits of green tea for their general health and well being. Drinking green tea magically enhanced their mood and emotion and it also improved their perception. Nowadays, more and more people learned to appreciate why green tea was given so much importance during the ancient times, as more and more scientific findings came out proving the importance of green tea to health. Going back to the past, China was among the largest tea producer since they also pioneered tea cultivation. Due to trade relations, the goodness of taste and aroma of tea reached even the western countries. However, the supply of tea cannot meet the growing demands of the westerners, since it’s not that easy to make business with the Chinese. They are a naturally rich and self sufficient country, which is why; they don’t really need goods from other countries and they don’t participate in trade. The westerners, particularly the tea merchants found it hard to get tea supplies in order to augment the needs for green tea. China also realized the use of tea in making their country more stable. They used tea as a political and economic implement. Tea products were use to trade for horses for their soldiers. There were specific places in China where people compressed tea leaves, packed it in moulds and form it into bricks or other shapes. They used these tea bricks as currency for barter. They are used partially dried, whole or finely grounded leaves. Some bricks were even mixed with manure, blood, flour and other binding agents in order to make the form compact and bear physical use as money. They also used this brick as a trade itself which can be consumed as food or beverage. This form is preferred by traders during those times since it can withstand the material damage brought about by transportation method. However, current findings shows that pressed green tea may not be health friendly. The processing method accumulates too much fluoride which can already be toxic, and can give rise to a condition called fluorosis, affecting the teeth and the bones. Tea brick are still sold nowadays, but only for souvenir purposes.